Doesn’t work for me. I don’t do stalkerbook.
Here you go:
"This is the very first photo taken of my daughter and I, taken two weeks ago on July 31st, 2018, approximately 10 minutes after she was born. If you look closely, you'll see she's clutching a photo of her dad,
Brian James Bugge who passed away May 20th, 2018 during a closed circuit rebreather training dive. My daughter will never get to meet her dad and this is the only photo I'll ever have of the two of them together. Our other two children (ages 4 and 2) will have the photos and home videos to cherish, but will never know the incredible man their father was - all three of our children's story will forever be, "My dad died when I was a baby and I never knew him." I'm sharing this with you because my husbands death was preventable and after what I've been through the past 12 weeks since his death, I'm hoping sharing his story and the details of his final minutes will help any and all of you from having your family suffer the same fate as I/we are now.
Brian's work relocated our family to Hawaii in the summer of 2017 and we were ecstatic. We had spent a fair amount of time there prior and as open circuit divers we were thrilled about having this giant playground in our backyard to dive in as much as we wanted. Brian had been looking into technical diving for quite some time and was excited when he found a rebreather program close to our new home that would work for him and he enrolled. He soon became consumed with his CCR and had big dreams of diving the world on it. Although he was still in training on it, he was captivated and started daydreaming about expeditions to untouched wrecks in the South Pacific, looking into cave diving courses and planning for 10 years down the road when he could retire from his day job and open his own dive shop - teaching and sharing his love of this device.
This all came to an abrupt halt on the morning of May 20th, 2018. He left our home that morning to meet up with his class for a training dive and was nervous/excited because this was going to be the first time he'd be diving trimix (a blend of Helium, Nitrogren and Oxygen gasses) This was a big deal for him and he'd been talking about it for weeks prior. He met up with his class, hopped on the boat and headed out to the dive site where a number of mistakes were made in succession, causing my husband to lose consciousness and drown in these waters he loved so much.
I've attached a copy of his dive log as prepared by Divesoft- the manufacturer of his rebreather- from the morning of below. I know families of deceased divers don't typically release this type of information, however Brian loved this machine and I know if the roles were reversed, he'd be thankful for and humbled by any information which led to a rebreather fatality that he could possibly learn from. You are a small community and I believe there are lessons to be learned here, I hope you take them to heart.
As I mentioned, the actual black box dive log is below with a synopsis of events in those final minutes. What the report doesn't show is that Brian was a student in this class and as a student, he was still learning this device and specifically on this day; he was going to be learning to dive on a new gas mixture. As I mentioned above, he was both nervous and excited about this, especially since this dive would complete this specific portion of his training. He jumped in the water, gave his OK and swam in the current to the dive line while waiting for his instructor and the rest of the class to get geared up and in the water. During this short interim while waiting on the dive line, he asked for someone on the boat to hand him his (brand new) dive camera which he'd be bringing on the dive to document. From all available evidence it is assumed he was task loaded while making final adjustments to his camera that he failed to notice two very crucial things; 1. His CCR computer was in surface mode as opposed to dive mode and 2. He failed to open his O2 tank prior to jumping in the water. If either of these tasks had been completed (or checked) he would more than likely be here today. He also absolutely should not have had his camera with him during this class. He was already task loaded and still learning his CCR, having his camera without a doubt contributed to his being distracted. As the report below will show, he stayed at the surface for a few minutes but without any eyes on him and without any O2 filling his breathing loop, he very quickly lost consciousness and sank to the bottom of the ocean. Once it was realized that he was sinking, valiant rescue attempts were made by his instructor and classmates to bring him to the surface and attempt CPR on the way back to the marina, but it was too late and he was gone. My husband made these seemingly simple errors and they cost him his life. These errors cost the kids their dad, they cost me my best friend and partner. These mistakes happened on a planned dive, in good water conditions, during a class under the instruction of a trainer. If these could happen under those circumstances and with this outcome, I find it imperative to get this report out to you so that you don't over-estimate your confidence the next time you go to jump in the water. Check everything yourself and then ask your instructor, boat captain, dive buddy to double check it as well.
It's now been 12 weeks and I'm still receiving information from the number of agencies and people investigating the circumstances leading up to and including my husbands death. I will continue to release information as it becomes available from the medical examiner, US Coast Guard and others if I believe it will help anyone in this diving community from suffering the same fate as Brian. Releasing this report is done in good faith that it will help members of the diving community my husband loved so much, and I hope it will be received by you all in the same regard.
-Ashley Bugge"
